Fit of rage: This is the 41-year-old father who is charged with murder for killing the registered sex offender who molested his daughter

Supporters are lining up behind an Alabama father charged with killing the man who went to prison for molesting his daughter more than a decade ago, but a man who came face-to-face with the alleged gunman said Tuesday the shooter doesn't deserve any praise.

A Facebook site created to show support for the man had more than 950 members within hours of its creation, and donors gave more than $350 on another website to help fund his legal defense. Jason Lackey, a longtime friend of the alleged shooter, contributed $150.

'The guy was guilty of raping his little girl, and I guess he dealt with it for 12 years and it just built up,' said Lackey, who has a recreational vehicle business in Cullman.

'I won't say (he) had the right to go murder him, but I understand when he did.'

The Associated Press doesn't identify victims of sex crimes, and it isn't naming the man charged with murder to protect his daughter's identity.

The father is charged with murder in the slaying of Raymond Earl Brooks, 59, a registered sex offender who was fatally shot on Sunday outside the rural home where he lived with his parents. Brooks pleaded guilty to sexually abusing the man's daughter in 2002, and the Alabama Department of Corrections said Brooks served 27 months of a five-year prison term before being released early in February 2005.

The father also is charged with opening fire on a stepdaughter's boyfriend outside a convenience store moments before the slaying.

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Mike Hays, who cooks and operates a small barbecue restaurant inside Berlin Plaza Quick Stop, where the shooting occurred, said he came face-to-face with the shooter after the man opened fire outside and then entered the store looking for his intended victim, who wasn't hurt.

'People here are calling him a hero for killing a child molester. I'm calling him a psychopathic lunatic for endangering peoples' lives, including mine,' Hays said.

After stopping his motorcycle at an intersection outside the store, the father fired once at a man who was standing beside an ice cooler, Hays said. The bullet entered an exterior wall of the store and chipped a window but no one was injured.

Hays said he retrieved his own weapon and confronted the gunman near the cash register.

'He had the gun down by his side. He was calm, as calm as you are standing there now. But he had that look in his eye,' said Hays. 'I have no problem with him shooting a child molester, just not 12 years later. If it was my daughter he would have died back in 2002.'

Brooks' father, Ralph Brooks, told WBRC-TV in Birmingham that his son did not deserve to die. He said Raymond Earl Brooks turned his life around after his conviction and lived a godly life that included being active in his church. Because his son's conviction happened so long ago, he said he couldn't be sure if the shooting was a form of revenge.

Shot dead: Raymond Earl Brooks, 59, who was convicted of molesting a 7-year-old girl in 2002, was gunned down at his parents' home

'It would be unbelievable to hold animosity in your heart for 12 years,' Brooks said.

A
person who answered the door at the Brooks' home Tuesday told an
Associated Press reporter the family was making funeral arrangements and
was not available to comment immediately.

Lackey
said he was told by a relative that the shootings followed a family
argument over the stepdaughter's boyfriend that grew heated enough to
include a reference to the sexual abuse case from years before.

'I'm 100 per cent behind him,' Lackey said.

Chief
Deputy Mac Barlett said the father did make a statement to deputies
after he was arrested Sunday night, but Barlett said he could not
comment on what the man had said.

The
father and Brooks 'obviously didn't have a whole lot of good blood
between them,' but it was unknown whether the shooting was directly
linked to the sex abuse case, Bartlett said.

'It is odd. He apparently had a lot of stressors going on in his life,' Bartlett said.

The suspect's father told MailOnline he has no idea why he might have waited 13 years to attack Brooks.

Support: Supporters on the Facebook page for the murder suspect call him a 'hero'

He said he hadn't heard his son talk about the attack since the trial in 2001 and 2002.

Documents show the suspect was a witness
against Brooks in a sexual abuse case involving his daughter in 2001.
Police said the girl was eight at the time, but court records show she was seven.

Brooks pleaded guilty to sexual abuse in 2002 and initially was sentenced to five years in prison but later received probation, records show. He finished paying $2,946 in restitution and costs in 2009.

Barlett
said Brooks was shot several times at the home of his parents, where he
had been living, shortly after the shooting at the store. The father
apparently rode his motorcycle straight to the house after the first
shooting, Bartlett said, but the reason was unclear.

The suspect used a 9mm pistol that he was legally permitted to carry in both shootings.

The man also was charged with attempted murder and shooting into an occupied building, Bartlett said.

The suspect had been arrested twice before for domestic violence, though the charges were either dismissed or he was found not guilty.

Barlett said Brooks had not violated his probation or his sex offender restrictions since his release from prison.

'As it stands right now, the defendant committed a murder. We look at it no different, no matter the history of the victim. Mr Brooks had previously been sentenced and released for his crime,' he said.

'Regardless of any past or pending crimes that he may have committed, this was murder.'